Polybius: the First Punic War

According to
the Greek historian Polybius
of Megalopolis (c.200-c.118), the First
Punic War (264-241) between Carthage
and Rome was "the longest and most severely contested war in history".
And indeed, it lasted almost a quarter of a century and probably, a million
people lost their lives. In the end, Rome had conquered the island of Sicily,
and had become a Mediterranean superpower.

Book 1, chapter 20

[261 BCE] When the news of what had occurred
at Acragas reached the Roman Senate,
in their joy and elation they no longer confined themselves to their original
designs and were no longer satisfied with having saved the Mamertines
and with what they had gained in the war itself, but, hoping that it would
be possible to drive the Carthaginians
entirely out of the island and that if this were done their own power would
be much augmented, they directed their attention to this project and to
plans that would serve their purpose.

As regards their land force at least they noted that at progressed satisfactorily;
for the consuls
appointed after those who had reduced Acragas, Lucius Valerius Flaccus
and Titus Otacilius Crassus, seemed to be managing Sicilian
affairs as well as possible; but as the Carthaginians maintained without
any trouble the command of the sea, the fortunes of the war continued to
hang in the balance. For in the period that followed, now that Acragas
was in their hands, while many inland cities joined the Romans from dread
of their land forces, still more seaboard cities deserted their cause in
terror of the Carthaginian fleet. Hence when they saw that the balance
of the war tended more and more to shift to this side or that for the above
reasons, and that while Italy was frequent ravaged by naval forces, Africa
remained entirely free from damage, they took urgent steps to get on the
sea like the Carthaginians. And one of the reasons which induced me to
narrate the history of the war named above at some length is just this,
that my readers should, in this case too, not be kept in ignorance of the
beginning - how, when, and for what reasons the Romans first took to the
sea.

When they saw that the war was dragging on, they undertook for the first
time to build ships, a 100 quinqueremes and 20 triremes. As their shipwrights
were absolutely inexperienced in building quinqueremes, such ships never
having been in use in Italy, the matter caused them much difficulty, and
this fact shows us better than anything else how spirited and daring the
Romans are when they are determined to do a thing. It was not that they
had fairly good resources for it, but they had none whatever, nor had they
ever given a thought to the sea; yet when they once had conceived the project,
they took it in hand so boldly, that before gaining any experience in the
matter they at once engaged the Carthaginians who had held for generations
undisputed command of the sea.

Evidence of the truth of what I am saying and of their incredible pluck
is this. When they first undertook to send their forces across to Messana
not only had they not any decked ships, but no long warships at all, not
even a single boat, and borrowing fifty-oared boats and triremes from the
Tarentines and Locrians, and also from the people of Elea and Naples they
took their troops across in these at great hazard. On this occasion the
Carthaginians put to sea to attack them as they were crossing the straits,
and one of their decked ships advanced too far in its eagerness to overtake
them and running aground fell into the hands of the Romans. This ship they
now used as a model, and built their whole fleet on its pattern; so that
it is evident that if this had not occurred they would have been entirely
prevented from carrying out their design by lack of practical knowledge.